Hygiene & Sanitation

Not surprisingly, one of the leading causes of death in long-term wilderness survival situations is infection and disease. Cleanliness and basic hygiene are very important to your survival and should be diligently looked after. Hygiene is primarily a proactive endeavor – keeping yourself and your gear clean to avoid infection or infestation.

Animal & Bug Repellents

Other items commonly overlooked in preparations are animal and bug repellents. Simple gear like bug repellent spray, citronella candles, and bear bells can go a long way to keep you comfortable and safe. Aside from the obvious irritation caused by bug bites, they can actually be more dangerous. Mosquitos and other blood-sucking insects have been known to carry and transmit disease so avoiding them can mean the difference between life and death.

Portable Showers

Basic hygiene allows you to keep your body, your gear, and your area clean and limit the chances of an infestation or contamination that can cause infection or disease. Warm water and soap is still the best way to clean you body. A bar of soap is small, lightweight, and pretty long-lasting so stocking up on a bit of bar soap is a good idea. Solar water-heating showers are a compact and easy way to ensure you’ll have warm water for cleaning. A solar spray shower harnesses the heating power of the sun to warm 5 gallons of water to nearly 100° in approximately two and half hours. Compact, biodegradable toilet tissue is another easy to include gear item that will help you keep clean in comfortable during an emergency or disaster situation.

Portable Camping Toilets & Waste Management

Keeping your body clean is one aspect of survival hygiene, the other is keeping your location clean. This may be especially relevant if you are practicing wilderness survival rather than bugging out to a prepared retreat location. It may not be pretty, but human waste is a reality and we can assume that in a disaster situation we won’t have the luxury of a sewer system that simply whisks it all away. It is imperative that human waste be properly disposed of to avoid contamination of water (or food) sources and the spread of life-threatening infection or disease. Portable toilets and the accompanying waste management products are an effective way to control and properly manage human waste away from the convenience of modern sanitation. Portable toilets generally fold up and weigh around 5 pounds so they are easy to transport. Set up is a simple matter of unfolding and snapping into the open position. These portable ‘johns’ can be used with products such as Reliance Waste Digesters or Reliance Double Doodie Bags with Waste Gelation that make disposing of human waste safe and easy.

Body Bags

No one wants to think about the possibility of losing loved ones in a disaster or emergency situation, but the reality is that it is a possibility. Bodies must be properly disposed of to avoid contamination and the spreading of disease, especially when the cause of death is unknown. Body bags are compact and easy to store and provide a safe and dignified means of moving and handling those who may have fallen.